This invention relates to providing communications over the Internet and, more particularly, to apparatus for and a method of providing special calling services over the Internet.
Toll-Free 800/888 service (referred to hereinafter as Toll-Free service) provides significant revenues to service providers. The U.S. domestic Toll-Free service has been a great success generating large revenues for businesses by using a single national telephone number and by reverse charging for calls made to that number. This service is currently offered only within the U.S. and thus is a domestic service only.
The international calling market is quite profitable and is increasing as the world""s commerce moves rapidly towards globalization. There are many U.S. and non-U.S. based companies whose business would be tremendously enhanced if they could offer and advertise their international Toll-Free numbers to a world wide customer base instead of just to their U.S. based clientele. However, international Toll-Free service is difficult to offer because of many factors such as differences in country cost structures, differences in international numbering plans, and differences in bit stream synchronization. Tariff allocation is also very difficult across national boundaries especially when many countries are involved in establishing the connection. The above problems have made international Toll-Free service implementation and management very difficult.
In accordance with the present invention, the above problems in providing international Toll-Free service implementation and management are eliminated using our method of establishing a call connection over the Internet. More generally, our inventive Internet based calling method enables calling connections to be established using special service dialed numbers, (referred to hereinafter as special services numbers), such as a Toll-Free number (e.g., an 800 or 888 number), a caller billed voice service number (e.g., a 900 number), a caller billed data service number (e.g., a 700 number), etc.
Our inventive Internet call connection method comprises the steps of (a) an Internet Telephony Server (ITS) receiving a dialed special services number of an originated call; (b) mapping the dialed special services number to a destination number and a Internet Protocol (IP) address of a terminating ITS that serves the destination number; and (c) routing the originated call from an originating Internet Telephony Server (ITS) to that terminating ITS, by using the determined IP address, and then to the destination number to complete the call.
In accordance with another aspect of our invention, an Internet call connection uses an Internet Telephony Server (ITS) apparatus comprising (1) an interface for receiving a dialed special services number over a trunk connected to the server; (2) accessing means for accessing a mapping database using the dialed special services number to obtain a destination number and a terminating Internet Protocol address; and (3) a call router for routing the call and the destination number to a terminating ITS identified by the terminating Internet Protocol address.
Another aspect of our invention provides a database apparatus for use with the Internet comprising (1) interface means for receiving a dialed special services number and for outputting an obtained destination number and terminating Internet Protocol (IP) address to the Internet and (2) a mapping database for mapping the received dialed special services number to obtain said destination number and said terminating Internet Protocol (IP) address.